Wilma the Witch

Halloween is on the way! And the Little One wants to dress up. But in a cute way. She’s off to a party and decides to dress up as a witch. Donning an olive green gown and hat with gold bits for some bling, she also sprays her hair pink, carefully inserts purple contact lenses and adds huge sparkly eyelashes. How Kawaii! “Hello, I’m Wilma the witch”, she squeals.

The fun part about Halloween is that from an artist’s perspective, you can get adventurous and experiment with crazy ideas. Hair and eye colours for instance need not be conventional. My characters are out of the ordinary anyhow so why not further develop them? The Halloween theme came about as I began brushing my excess paints and inks on a separate paper whilst painting another piece. I then added various stenciled shapes (birds) and stamped on some bubble wrap patterns.

Then I designed and painted acrylic over it. Costume was coloured in Chopped Pesto by Dylusions and the face using Jane Davenport’s portrait paints.

The rest was straight forward. I initially used some purple and light blue oil pastels for the hair and then painted over them in magenta paint (a combination of Golden acrylic fluid in Quinacridone Magenta and heavy body acrylic in Light Magenta) For the broom, I used that same method, first oil pastel then paint over it. Why? The water-resistant nature of the oil pastels gives an interesting strandy effect. Full bodied violet acrylic paint (Golden’s Light Violet) was used for the eyes. Obviously, black for the bats using the Amsterdam acrylic.

I then added some finishing touches by scraping in some gold paint (Golden Fluid Acrylic in Light Gold) on the costume, especially the hat. Uni Posca white marker was used for the bats’ eyes and the whites of Wilma’s eyes. Finally I dotted in some silver on the lashes using another marker (Uni Paint). Given the background is quite elaborate from the beginning, I didn’t think it necessary to add too much more. Now I’m happy!

Wilma is happy too! Another amazing painting which started from brushing on excess paint from a previous piece. I also enjoy working with colours and discovering what works best. In this one, which began as rather drab, I managed to add some liveliness by the pink and purple. Focusing on the eyes, especially with the huge eyelashes, helped too. So enjoy your kawaii Halloween party, Wilma, and have fun!